Top 10 Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration Headlines from All Regions Mourant du Feu & Jeune has recently made a successful application on behalf of its client, Mr Gary Kaplan, to secure the discharge of a saisie judiciaire obtained at the United States' behest freezing all his realisable property situate in Jersey. In a culture where gossip is news, where questions are met with indignation instead of answers, and where, by law, the Ministers' definition of "public good" cannot be questioned, facts and fiction are readily and frequently intermingled in the Government's announcements and news releases. 2008 and 2009 have seen the continued upwards trend of securities class action filings that began in 2007. There were 210 federal securities class actions filed in 2008, an increase of 29% over 2007. A derivative action is actually two causes of action: it is an action to compel the corporation to sue and it is an action brought by a shareholder on behalf of the corporation to redress harm to the corporation. Two recent decisions, one delivered by the Privy Council and the other by the Court of Appeal, have re-examined the circumstances in which the courts will find implied terms in contracts. Employers are learning the hard way that gaining access to private employee information during workplace investigations can lead to lawsuits, liability and headaches. In a recent ruling from the bench, Judge James M. Peck of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York held that Metavante Corporation’s suspension of payments under an outstanding swap agreement with Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc. (“LBSF”) was not safe harbored, and instead violated the automatic stay of section 362(a) of the Bankruptcy Code. Ciba Inc. in a move against Sequent [Ciba Inc. & Anr. v. Sequent Scientific Ltd & Ors. Notice of Motion No.3472 OF 2009 in Suit No.2501 of 2009] alleged them for breach of confidentiality before the High Court of Bombay. Two recent cases, Mazzarolo v. BMO Nesbitt Burns ltée and Gale v. ScotiaMcLeod, are more examples of case law that emerged from the high tech crash. The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday heard oral arguments in "Bilski v. Kappos", a case that could reshape the scope of what can be patented and that will almost certainly have broad implications for the patentability of business methods. | 
